The Shoveler

Dream commission from a living artist: David Mazzucchelli: a Daredevil "Born Again" piece. One of those Arthur Adams cover expansions of either Thor, Star Wars, New Mutants/X-Men "Asgardian Wars," or Hulk #5 (1963) turned into a Hulk vs everybody in his rogue's gallery (especially the Toad Men!). Passed: Big John Buscema: a re-attack of FF#116...Dr. Doom leads the FF against the Overmind and a mind-controlled Reed Richards. With inks by Joltin' Joe Sinnott, who thankfully is still with us.

Thanks! In the right hands, Deathmate: Socrates could be a kick-@$$ book!

I wouldn't trade my collection for any one piece. However, If I did, it would maybe look something like this: http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=1406377 Fantastic Four 100 cover re-imagining by Art Adams. Great Ceasar's Ghost!

Sigh. David would "compose" a wall-sized canvas in such a manner as to simply avoid drawing as many faces and feet as possible. Or, in the case of Mademoiselle Guimard and Stanislaw Kostka Potocki, he would just draw the feet ridiculously tiny. The Tennis Court Oath was intended to portray a contemporary event, but by the time he abandoned this neglected project, it was an unfinished historical piece. And his Deathmate: Socrates miniseries missed multiple shipping dates. Really the 19th century's Rob Liefeld... /s

x2. It's not easy to find a good accomplice.

"Jack was telling me that someday I'll see comic book art on museum walls. I'm laughing, saying, "Aah, it'll never happen..." John Romita * The Jack mentioned by John was Jack Kirby. From the 2006-2007 interview, conducted by Jim Amash, on page 81 of: Alter Ego Presents John Romita...And All That Jazz by Roy Thomas and Jim Amash TwoMorrows Publishing, 2007

You're approaching the hobby in a very thoughtful manner. As long as you understand your goals, resources ($), and what trade-offs you're willing to make between your priorities, then you'll do just fine. However things turned out last night, good luck and have fun! Aim high.

His Cosmik Debris was pretty good too.

The plot thickens...

Great find, Coach! Thank you for getting us to the original source! x1,000! His work on Micronauts remains some of my favorite after all these years. I'll gladly pay for that Artist/Artifact Edition! From https://www.popoptiq.com/micronauts-marvel-bill-mantlo-michael-golden/: "Golden never was the most productive artist in comics...but he would influence artists for the next couple of decades. Look at almost any of the original Image artists and you can trace their influences directly or indirectly back to Golden. In an age where Marvel’s house style was still heavily influenced by Jack Kirby’s power and Neal Adam’s realism, Golden brought a flourish to that style. His expressive and acrobatic figures had a bounce to them that wasn’t present in many comics. His characters looked like they were ready to spring into action at any moment. And when they did finally fight, their bodies moved in ways that looked more like dancing than fisticuffs. There’s a gracefulness to Golden’s characters, whether he was drawing Batman, soldiers in Vietnam, or microcosmic adventurers, that he achieved with these flowing lines and limbs." Another great source! Thank you, Pete!

The golden rule of original comic art collecting (at least for me). Amen. The art must stand on its own. As interpreted by the buyer. Period. Exclamation point. First appearances, "they're going to be in the next super-hero movie!!!", non-appealing work by famous (or any) artist, claims of historical value, artist before or after their prime (artist's assistant/spouse), unproven attributions that Frank Miller maybe might have possibly scratched a pencil mark somewhere on the backgrounds on that page, and "special" moments are completely meaningless if I'm not totally in love with the art. If any inherent flaws (as perceived by the buyer) in anatomy, technique, condition of the page, potential claims to the art by an artist's progeny, selling price, etc. are so prominent as to distract from me fully enjoying the art, then I'm self-disqualified from the market for that page. If it doesn't have characters that I care about or can relate to in some way, or if I don't like how the characters are portrayed, then I don't want the page. As a practical matter, that means I'm out of the market for a lot of stuff that may be within my price range. So be it. In the case of McFarlane’s Spidey, I’ve always considered “his” Spidey to be directly derived from Arthur Adams work on the cover of Longshot #4 (red & blue costume)(series published from Sep 85 thru Feb 86) and Web of Spider-Man Annual #2 (black costume) (Sep 86). Here, Arthur Adams seems to be the pioneer of “spaghetti” webbing (distinctly visible on the Longshot cover, Web Annual #2 page 17 and elsewhere in that book), expanded the range of exaggerated poses, utilized big eyes on the mask which change to indicate emotion, drew human characters in a cartoonish fashion in contrast to the usual house style, added more webs to the pattern of the old red-and-blue costume, and made the black costume seem more menacing (at least in my eyes). Web Annual #2 and Longshot #4 have always seemed (to me) to be the Bible that McFarlane started quoting from in ASM #298 (March 1988). To McFarlane’s (considerable) credit, he picked great source material and then dialed it all the way to 11 while making it his own. And he had the (considerable) guts to do it at a time when Marvel’s art was terribly static & boring at best and, at worst, consistently reached all-new low points each month (I had quit buying the new issues almost a year before ASM #298).

I love the shadows and the lighting, and the contrast looks great in black & white. I like Mandrake's characters here. He gives them realistic proportions and makes them very organic in comparison to the well-detailed industrial landscape. Nice perspective in the first panel to depict the dizzying heights...just look at all those cars way down there! And that's how Batman should look! I don't know how much you paid or how much Mandrake's art goes for these days, but I'd expect that this piece would be a good value (a nice page at a reasonable cost) in addition to being an excellent start to your collection. Well-done!

When did CLink start putting stickers on the back of art? I got a couple of pieces from them over the past few years and none of them have stickers. Short answer to the OP will be: "it depends." Waddaya got to sell? Doesn't alxjhnsn have a standardized, all-inclusive response for this question somewhere(s) on these boards? If so, that's likely to be more complete that what you'll get from the rest of these roustabouts.

Cool Thor page! And I say that in all seriousness, no snark is intended. Is Dr. Kincaid appearing in Thor: Ragnarok (or any other MCU flick/tv show)? (please use a spoiler banner. I like to be surprised about these crucial plot details.) Interesting to note, Dr. Kincaid's religious affiliation is: Possessed by Demon! http://www.comicbookreligion.com/?c=23663&Dr_Keith_Kincaid I don't what is more surprising: That there's a website listing the religion of 36,389 comic characters or that it includes Dr. Kincaid.

I must have dropped the book before it turned into "a very important After School Special episode of Boris The Bear." My only memories of the book are happy adolescent fun...With a dose of Sophomoric Suspense© in the case of the "Dump Thing" issue!

Thanks for sharing the report, Doc. The commissions all look great...and that Winter Soldier by Barrows is a stand-out!

x2. Would be nice to see some Boris The Bear and It's Science With Dr. Radium artwork hit the streets...

Avengers #168 by George Pérez and Terry Austin sold for $59,750 on Heritage in the 17-19 November 2016 auction: https://comics.ha.com/itm/original-comic-art/george-perez-and-terry-austin-avengers-168-cover-original-art-marvel-1978-/a/7141-93187.s?ic4=GalleryView-Thumbnail-071515. This cover is Henry Peter Gyrich's NYX #3 equivalent. Is this the Ron Wilson cover you saw? https://comics.ha.com/itm/original-comic-art/ron-wilson-and-john-romita-avengers-123-cover-original-art-marvel-1974-/ae/7147-92243.s?ic4=GalleryView-Thumbnail-071515. This #123 cover with Mantis sold for $35.8K in Aug 2015 and currently has a Buy-It-Now for $55K. The cover to Avengers #118 also sold for big bucks ($65K?) on Heritage within the last few years. That cover is full of Avengers, Defenders, Loki & Dormammu! But alas, there is no Gyrich on it to justify the auction price.

You're welcome! Glad to assist. Big thanks to everyone else who's generously shared their storage ideas. I've learned a lot over the past few years from contributors like Vodou, akaRick, Rune's "Fun with Sun" thread and BCarter27's smooth system described above. And kudos to Peter L for starting this topic...It's always insightful to get an update on storage tips. FWIW: I've never had a need for photo tabs. So far, the art stays snug in the Bags Unlimited Mylars with boards. Here's a summary of my set-up: Because I Mylar & board each piece, I can only put a handful of pages (8-10) in the portfolios I get from Anthony's. If you put too many boards in there, it could over-expand the portfolio and potentially cause some warping or edge roll. I have a relatively small collection, so it isn't a problem to just use a few extra ports. I'd rather gold-plate my storage now and not have to worry about upgrading later...YMMV. I do have one port dedicated for some very low-cost pages + a few prints...there is only one Mylared piece in there. And I keep the ports flat on top of a small bookshelf in a closet with an Eva Dry E-500 high-capacity dehumidifier and an AcuRite 00613 humidity monitor. The dehumidifier needs to be removed once every few months and plugged into a socket to burn-off any collected moisture. This process normally takes about two days...longer than the instructions call for. The device gets plugged in for a day, removed overnight (that sucker gets HOT and I don't want to burn down the house), then plugged in for the next day before going back in the closet. The orange indicator dots turn green as they absorb moisture, but while plugged-in they actually get worse before they get better, so don't panic when they turn black.

You're welcome, JadeGiant. Unfortunately, it looks like Voduo has already test driven this portfolio and confirms that it's probably not a good fit, especially if we want to add mylar and boards. My concern is that the 18x24 mylar/board already has a little bit of flex in it, so it is important to handle it carefully and use both hands. I would be concerned that putting this into a portfolio sleeve could interfere with supporting the piece during handling and make it more probable for some bad flexing to happen while turning the pages. For now, I'll continue to keep my oversized Mylared pieces in a cardboard sandwich that is placed in a large plastic polybag sealed all the way across to keep out pests. Currently I'm using a polybag that probably came from the Bags Unlimited order for the 18x24 mylars & boards. I planned to upgrade to a newer polybag, but I've only been able to find that large of a size by going to an industrial storage vendor. I've been delaying this purchase because the vendor only does bulk orders. So, the cost ended up being much more than I wanted to spend to get 1-to-3 bags to use out of the 200 or whatever the total quantity was. Can't remember the exact price quote/quantity and I don't have my link to their site handy at the moment. Anybody have any spare 19x25 ziplocks?

That would be a great display option. I just found this 18 x 24 Itoya at Blick's: http://www.dickblick.com/items/15019-9024/ At Amazon, the dimensions for the 18x24 Itoya are given as 19 x 24.5 x 0.9 inches (https://www.amazon.com/ITOYA-Presentation-Portfolio-Photography-Documents/dp/B00009R8XD/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1489769148&sr=8-1&keywords=itoya+art+portfolio+18+x+24). So it would hopefully fit the 18.5 x 24.5 mylar + board. I might take a chance and order one of these... Anyone out there already use this large Itoya?

Bags Unlimited has Mylar sized 24" x 18" . Product code is s1824r : https://www.bagsunlimited.com/product/4329/polyester-mylar-sleeve-4mil-no-flap The backings (acid free) for this size are product code kaf401824: https://www.bagsunlimited.com/product/5486/backings-for-artwork-photos-unfolded-mapsnbsp18-x-24-14 This is what I use for my oversized pieces. I get my 12 x 18 sleeves & backing from BU as well.

Cool page. Cool Bee. Cool Kirby Krackle. And your connection to the art is the coolest. Congrats! Your hair was much longer than Kamandi's, right?

The bristol board is upside down. That actually works better for this composition. The (upside down) blue text serves to anchor the signatures down (up) below. And there's no annoying text at the top (bottom) to interfere with the viewer's eyes being directed to the central focus point of Wolvie's l'il cranium. Good thing the claws aren't inked, or we'd be danger-close to another self-inflicted healing factor emergency. At least his right fist is ready to be applied to the left leg's femoral artery pressure points. Did the purchase include that lovely exposed aggregate concrete slab?

I haven't seen anyone use masonite in over 10 years. A Heritage piece from 2015 was packaged in multiple layers of cardboard...very thick stuff that extended far beyond the edges of the page, which was sealed in a polybag with a backer board. The polybag was tapped in the center of the interior layers of cardboard. The entire package was fully sealed with tape and the art was very well-protected...overall the packaging was very professional. I was impressed...even though I didn't merit the masonite treatment...